The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Du Cane, Sir Charles
Du Cane, Sir Charles, K.C.M.G., formerly Governor of Tasmania, son of Captain Charles Du Cane, R.N., of Braxted Park, Witham, Essex, by his marriage with Frances, second daughter of Rev. Charles Prideaux Brune, of Prideaux Place, Padstow, Cornwall, was born at Ryde, Isle of Wight, in 1825, and educated at the Charterhouse, and at Exeter College, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. (fourth class in classics and mathematics) in 1847 and M.A. in 1864. Sir Charles represented Maldon in the House of Commons from 1852 to 1853, when he was unseated on petition, and North Essex from March 1857 until Dec. 1868, and was a Civil Lord of the Admiralty from 1866 to Dec. 1868, when he was appointed Governor of Tasmania, a post which he held from Jan. 1869 to March 1874, when he returned to England and was created K.C.M.G. in 1875, and appointed Chairman of the Board of Customs, a position which he filled from 1878 till his death on Feb. 25th, 1889. Sir Charles married, in June 1863, Hon. Georgiana Susan Copley, youngest daughter of Lord Lyndhurst.